SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1901. THE DYING YEAR. And the Prospects in View.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 78, 28 December 1901, Page 8

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1901. THE DYING YEAR. And the Prospects in View.

THE first year of the Twentieth Century is fast running out its sands in Time's hour-glass For the two great branches of the English-speaking race it passes into history marked with special significance For the British Empire it closed, with the death of Queen Victoria, the longest reign and most brilliant epoch in our national .annals. Previously, the reign of "Good Queen Bess' 7 was regarded as the Augustan age of English history But the achievements in the arts of peace, the growth of democracy, the uplifting of the social < condition of the people, and the prodigious expansion of the Empire that have marked the Victorian age, stamp it as the most glorious the civilised world has 1 ever known ■» ■» » For the great Anglo-Saxon republic of the United States the year is stained with a great crime The hand of the assassin has removed a beloved ruler and Christian gentleman in the person of Major McKinley, and, for the third time m its brief history, a nation which prides itself upon its free and democratic institutions, has had to mourn a murdered President Both nations, too, are still embroiled in war. Brii> am is deeply engaged with the subjugation of the Boers, and the new year dawns with an extension of operations and the pouring forth of fresh Contingents from the Colonies. Uncle Sam, on his part, is busy stamping out the smouldering embers of war in the Philippines • • • The year that is gone derives, peihaps, its greatest lustre from the consummation of that noble work, the Australian Commonwealth which, in ages to come, will play a momentous part on the world's stage Here, in New Zealand, the year has been comparatively uneventful Its most memorable feature was the visit of the Duke and Duchess of York It has been a time of steady and solid, but quiet, progress. It is signalised too by the definite initiation of another great experiment in State socialism- — the completion of the legislative machinery for establishing State coal mines • « • Timid people are a bit uneasy at the weather portents on the horizon, but there is no real cause for serious alarm Tiue, the new Australian tariff has considerably abridged our nearest market, and that the low prices of our staples on the other side of the world are causing much >uconvenience Meat is down over 30 per cent , wool 40 per cent., kauri giun is depressed, and the industrial metals are down from 17 to 25 per cent It is no mere local experience, however, but a condition of affairs that affects every country under the sun • • • It is absurd to imagine it can seriously hurt a producing country like New Zealand On the contrary, our colony is better fitted to ride buoyantly over any commercial troubles that may be ahead than most of its rivals and neighbours What we must be prepared for is a readjustment of values Land, as an element of production.

must fall m price, and laboui must be more moderate in its demands But all these things will adjust themselves to changed conditions without much tiouble and the social comfort of the people will not be disturbed